Here’s how I wish it would happen:

Workplaces close on December 31, and we all leave our homes early to stand in line at pharmacies, medical offices, community centers, and places of worship, eagerly and politely waiting to get our COVID vaccines. One-by-one we exit the vaccination facilities, arms raised in victory, greeted by a corridor of well wishers, cheering our newly acquired immunity with handshakes, high-fives, and hugs. That night, fireworks erupt over the city, as we celebrate the promise of 2021.

Celebrations continue the following day. Dr. Fauci has accepted Calgary’s invitation to stand next to Dr. Hinshaw in a ticker tape parade, and beside them march the thousands of health-care workers – nurses, doctors, technicians, maintenance staff, food preparers, and all the rest – whose heroic labors have gotten us through the dark days of this pandemic. Together, we sneer at the murderous idiocy of the anti-vaxers and anti-maskers, glad that they finally saw the light and got their New Years Eve shots along with the rest of us. Like on VJ Day in Times Square, strangers hug and kiss, but this time only after having gotten proper consent (it is the 21st century, after all), and behind the revelry, the music plays – “Ceeeeelebrate good times, come on!”

Finally, unable to restrain myself, I climb atop the Calgary Tower, and, arms spread, belt out the most amazing version of Handel’s “Halleluyah Chorus” that anyone has ever heard – at least the parts of it that I as a Jew can sing – and all Calgary joins with me in praising God for allowing us to reach this magnificent moment. Halleluyah!

Alas, I’m afraid that little if any of this will happen this year. The vaccines are on their way, but, quite understandably, it will take time for most of us to get them. The skies over our city will remain quiet this New Years Eve, for it is important that we stay home and safe rather than engage in our customary December 31 revelries. Sadly, hugs, handshakes, and high-fives will all have to wait until we can engage in such affections without risking one another’s health.

No ticker-tape parades. No jubilant Halleluyah Choruses. No kissing strangers on the street. Instead, this New Years Eve will bring sighs of relief that we have gotten through 2020, and quiet wishes for a better 2021.

And yet, there are good reasons to be hopeful as we greet this New Year. The vaccines are on the way, promising not only and end to this horrible virus, but also renewed social connections and an improved economy. If all goes according to plan, this year infection rates will plummet, restaurants will reopen for in-person dining, travel will resume, and life for most of us will become far, far better.

In fact, in some ways life may end up even better for us after this pandemic than it was before. The pandemic has deprived us of health, prosperity, and in-person connections, and after it ends, many of us will appreciate those blessing more deeply than we did before. The pandemic has taught us new skills to remain socially connected even when physically distant, and those skills will surely remain. And the pandemic has shown us once again the amazing potential of human society to face tribulation. Science-deniers and mask-resisters notwithstanding, we humans will soon have succeeded in mustered our resources and facing down this COVID demon. It will prove to be an astounding achievement.

Significant change, it turn out, rarely happens suddenly. Instead, it’s usually gradual, slow, creeping along at a pace that challenges our patience when we’re eager to move on. But change happens, and patient we must be.

The great 12th century Jewish philosopher Maimonides said that every devout Jew must be able to say “I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the messiah, and even though he may tarry, I still believe.” You may or may not share this traditional belief in the messiah, but I hope you can join me in hoping for the eventual fulfillment of our dreams, even when fulfilling them takes longer than we’d like.

So let’s stay home this New Years Eve, and together let’s imagine the better tomorrow that 2021 promises to bring. Maybe, as we do so, we can hear the faint, whispered promise of 2021’s potential glories.

Halleluyah. Halleluyah. Halleluyah.